[RE] Basilisk vs Cockatrice
Although I finished my playthrough a while ago, this part has still been bugging me (in part because I was really confused when I said "cockatrice" the first time and was denied entry to the party). Did anyone else say "cockatrice"? Am I the only one bothered by this?
Because that thing which was the password...I mean, technically it was a version of a basilisk, but it was also technically a cockatrice (and more towards typical depictions of a cockatrice). The only way to have actually known what it was would be if there were images of what hatched it on the tapestry (and, I guess, D9's attempt at differentiating them physically with a description from an in-game book).
I even looked it up to double-check the mythology (because from as far back as my childhood, with good ole Magic the Gathering, a basilisk was always a serpentine creature and a cockatrice was always the rooster-snake hybrid), and only found that ever since the cockatrice was first depicted (as the rooster body & head with serpentine tail) in the "basilisk vs weasel", that the two are sometimes interchangeable since the cockatrice's lore comes from the basilisk.
The chicken-snake hybrid is typically coined as the "cockatrice", though it can be used as a basilisk (and that includes any sort of rearranging of its chicken features and reptile features. Another popular one is the chicken head on a dragon/serpent body).
They're technically two different creatures, but came from the same origin...so I can understand them being used interchangeably; but it still bothers me as someone who loves mythology.
It's not like the manticore and chimera (which people also often get mixed up)...maybe D9 should have used those, instead) which come from different stories.